Ronald Reagan's Farwell Speech Analysis

Ronald Reagan was the American dream. He came from humble beginnings in Dixon, Illinois and after graduating college began a career in radio which presented an opportunity while broadcasting Chicago Cubs baseball games to take a screen test which resulted in his becoming an actor whose career spanned 50 films. Most would consider this to be the peak of success and the satisfaction and achievement for a lifetime, but not Ronald Reagan. His move into politics came as a result of trouble in the Screen Actors Guild in which he was president. He continued to be politically active during the fifties as a spokesman for General Electric until he came to national prominence in 1964 delivering a speech named, “A Time For Choosing,” during the Presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. Goldwater lost
President Reagan's prediction of the collapse of Soviet communism had come true. America and its allies had prevailed in the Cold War. President Reagan's policies of preserving peace through strength and promoting the advancement of democracy around the world significantly contributed to this victory. President Reagan’s Farwell Speech summed up his achievements well, he says "The way I see it, there were two great triumphs, two things that I'm proudest of. One is the economic recovery...The other is the recovery of our morale. America is respected again in the world and looked to for leadership...They called it the Reagan Revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense...The lesson of all this was...as long as we always remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will be ours. And something else we learned. Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a